Explosion-arrester



E. RpBERRY. EXPLOSIONARRESTER.

APPLICATION FILED JAN-31, 1918.

. 32 8, 48 Patented Jan. 20,1920.

Fig. 2.

. /7 f REGULAT/NG DEV/0E Inventor: Edward R. Berry,

- STATES PATENT QFFICE.

EDWARD R. BERRY, 0F MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR '10 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, .A CORPORATION OF N EW YGRK.

EXPLOSION-ARRESTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

latented Jan. 20, 1920.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD R. BERRY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Malden, in the county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Explosion-Arresters, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to the prevention of explosions in gas burning apparatus. For-example, oxyhdrogen burners, acetylene burners and in factordinary hydrocarbon gas burners are supplied with gas from tanks which are subject to explosion by accidental admixtures of oxygen with the combustible gas. Hydrogen tanks are particularly susceptible to this danger partlcularly When the hydrogen is produced electrolytically as ox gen is produced together with the hydrogen in the electrolytic apparatus. When sufficient oxygen to pro duce an explosive mixture gets into the combustible gas, the flame will travel back from the burner through the supply conduit -to the storage tank and cause an explosion.

Safety devices for preventing gas explosions as heretofore constructed have attempted to stop the flame by spreading it out and cooling it in some way either by means of a diaphragm or by means of granular or porous material metallic or otherwise, interposed in thepath of the flame.

y experience'h'as shown that such means are not reliable enough to prevent an explosion under all conditions.

In accordance With my present invention a flame in a gas conduit is arrested by utilizingthe heat of the flame to melt a quantity of fusible material in the path of the gas flow and thereby seal the passage. The novel features of my invention are pointed outv with particularity in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 shows an explosion arrester embodying my invention interposed between a gasburner and a gas tank, and Fig. 2 is aseotional view of the arrester on a larger scalethan Fig. l.

The arrester 1 is interposed or made part of the gas conduit leading from the supply tank to the burner 3, as shown in Fig. 1. The arrester as shown in Fig. 2 comprises an outer receptacle consisting of a cylindrical tube 4 to the extremities of which are screwed caps 5 and 6 into which in turn are screwed outlet pipe 7 and an inlet pipe 8. "Within this receptacle is a porous cup or diaphragm 9 consisting of refractory material such as, for example, alundum which is porous enough to allow the passage of gas at ordinary pressure without materially impeding the flow. Any porous clay product will answer the requirements. This cup 9 is held in position within the conduit spaced away from the gas inlet and sealed by a quantity of suitable material 10. Within the porous cup is a quantity of a material which is easily fused at the temperature of a gas flame, such, for example, as pellets 11 of lead or of tin, and 4 parts bismuth. These pellets are supported upon a wire gauze 12 which, as shown in the drawing, is preferably cone shaped for the purpose of giving the maximum rigidity to avoid injury or displacement by the weight of the metal pellets supported by the same. Adjacent the outlet tube 7 is a diaphragm 13 consisting of close mesh wire gauze. In some cases this diaphragm may be omitted as it is not essential an alloy of 4 parts lead, 2 parts to the proper functioning of the arrester embodying my invention.

At the lower end of the inlet tube 8 is threaded a small tube 14 having a. shoulder on which rests a wire gauze 15 supporting a small quantity of small steel shot 16, or other suitable. material. forftrappin melted metal falling through the wire neging 12. The tube 14 is screw threaded to receive the ordinary gas supply pipe 17 leading to the gas tan as shown in Fig. 1.

In case a certain amount of oxygen or air should become mixed with the combustible gas in a gas burner outfit containing. aflame arr-ester embodying my invention, the flame traveling back from the burner through the gas conduit .line first strikes the wire gauze 13 where it is retarded for a short time and 1n some cases extinguished. If the oxygen "is present in considerable amounts, the flame passes onto the space between the wire gauze 13 and the porous diaphragm 9. "The flame is retarded for a materially longer time by the porous diaphragm 9 than by a Wire gauze such as 13 and burns in the surrounding space and in the interstices of the diaphragm causing a suificient generation of some cases this may be sufficient to stop the further passage of the flame by melting over heat to melt the pellets of metal within. In I and then sealing the top of the tank of metal shot or pellets. If this does not happen and the flame is persistent some of the metal shot will become melted and the fused metal fall into the inlet tube 8 upon the steel shot 16 and a diaphragm 15. This will cause the inlet tube to become sealed, thereby preventing the further progress of the flame and indicates by a stoppage of the gas that a dangerous condition exists. The operator may then shut oif the supply of gas at the regulating device 18 and remove the cause of the admixing of combustion supporting gas with the combustible gas.

hat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. A device for extinguishing the backfiring in gas burning apparatus, comprisin r a receptacle having an inlet and an outle' adapted to be connected in=a gas supply co'nduit, a porous diaphragm of refractory material inclosing a part of the space within said receptacle in the path of the gas flow, a

quantity of easily fusible material within said nclosed space and means for retaining said material when fused to cut off the flow of gas.

2. An explosion arrester for gas burning apparatus, comprising a container having a inlet and an outlet, a porous cup located w thin said container and consisting of refractory material, the wall of said cup being interposed in the path of a gas stream through said container, a quantity of easily fusible pellets within said inclosed space, and a diaphragm in the path'of a gas stream through said container adapted to be sealed by melting of said metal pellets.

3. An explosion arresterefor gas burning apparatus comprising a gas conduit, a receptacle having a porous Wall of refractory materialwithin said conduit, a wire netting closing'the lower end of: said receptacle, a

quantity of pellets of easily fusible metal in said receptacle resting on said setting, an inlet tube communicating with said receptacle through said netting and a diaphragm for trapping melted metal received from said receptacle thereby sealing said inlet tube.

4. An explosionarrester for gas burning apparatus comprising a receptacle having a gas inlet and an outlet adapted to be connected to a gas supply conduit, a porouswalled refractory diaphragm located within combustion within said receptacle, thereby interrupting the flow of gas.

5. An explosion arrester for gas burning apparatus comprising a receptacle having a gas inlet and'an outlet adapted to be connected to gas supply conduits, an alundum diaphragm located Within said receptacle in the path of gas flow and being spaced away from the gas inlet, and a quantity of easily fusible material located in good thermal relation to said diaphragm and positioned to seal by fusion gas passages through said receptacle.

6. An explosion arrester for gas burning apparatus comprising a receptacle having inlet and outlet openings adapted to be connected to gas supply conduits, an alundum cup located within said receptacle and inclosing part of the space therein, a netting located at the mouth of said cup and a quantity of readily fusible pellets within said cup.

In Witness whereof, I have hereunto set j my hand this 28th day of January, i918.

EDWARD R. BERRY. 

